On 11 December 2012, the Israeli occupation army raided at dawn three Palestinian NGO offices in Ramallah, ransacking workplaces of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committee, the Palestinian NGO Network, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights.

Murad Jadallah, the legal researcher for Addameer, told the Palestine Monitor that in addition to confiscating four laptops, a hard disk, a camera, photos, and posters from Addameer, the Israeli army stole legal files and deliberately turned the office upside down.

“The last time a raid was conducted on the Addameer offices was back in 2002,” Jadallah said. “This recent raid follows in a long line of the Israeli army and government’s persecution of the Addameer staff and lawyers, including arrests and banner the chairperson Abdullatif Ghaith from entering the West Bank.”

Two of Addameer’s lawyers were banned from seeing the Palestinian hunger striking prisoners in the last few months, and human rights defender and researcher Ayman Nasser was arrested in October and has had his detention extended numerous times and remains behind bars.

“Our response is for an increase in solidarity and support of the Palestinian prisoners,” Jadallah continued, “and in the words of Ayman Nasser, we will 'continue to support the prisoners’ issue even if the cost is my freedom.’”

The raid coincided with the 64th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ratification. Jadallah disclosed that Addameer had been actively sending out statements to international human rights organizations around the world highlighting Israel’s arbitrary policies and its constant violations of international law.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Secretary General of Palestinian National Initiative condemned the Israeli raids and affirmed that the invasion of Palestinian civil society organizations and the theft of its equipment and computers, while tampering with its material are dangerous advances that reflect Israeli policies.

Dr Barghouti went on to say that the targeting of civil society organizations that serve the Palestinian society cannot be tolerated, and called for immediate action to be taken in order to hold Israel accountable for its actions and continuous violations of international law.